MEDICS Streszczenie raportu

Biochip system and methodology for individual cell manipulation and detection

The biochip system developed within the project has a great potential for cell analysis, for research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Never before have scientists been able to individually control cells in a sample of several thousands. The system developed allows manipulating step by step from 1 to thousands of individual cells/beads in a sample as little as few microliters.

In the research filed, biologists may be able to study cell-cell interaction with a precise control on the timing, use the chip for isolating fluorescently labelled cells from a small cell-load, or program the system to make complex interactions which might involve, for example, beads, liposomes, cells.

In the diagnostic field, the system could be used to isolate rare-cells from pre-processed samples, in particular it could be the only system affording the possibility to isolate 10-100 cells (too many for manual operation, and more reliable than that) from a population of 10,000-100,000 (too small for Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorters).

Also, due to the integration of sensors, the MeDICS technology could implement a low-cost device for Point-of-Care blood cells analysis, once coupled with some sample collection and preparation stages.